Aeroflot Group boosts passenger traffic 8.8% in May to 3.5 mln people
MOSCOW. June 28 (Interfax) - Aeroflot Group increased passenger traffic 8.8% year-on-year in May of this year to 3.5 million passengers, the company said on Tuesday.
Passenger traffic on domestic routes grew 8.5% year-on-year in May and was up 9.2% on international routes. Passenger turnover rose 12% in May.
Aeroflot Russian Airlines alone carried 2.4 million people in May, up 12.4% year-on-year. Passenger traffic increased 20.3% on domestic routes and 5% on international routes. Passenger turnover was up 12.5%.
The upward trend reflects an increase in tourism on the domestic market along with a 9.5% increase in the airlines' carrying capacity resulting from more frequent flights to the most popular destinations, among other things.
Aeroflot also benefited from slackening competition due to the declining frequency of flights by foreign airlines to destinations in Russia, the company said. Growth in the transit flow of passengers through Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport also contributed to the increase, as did the withdrawal from the market of Transaero, whose passenger flows were redistributed among the remaining carriers.
In other words, in January-May the Aeroflot Group carried 15.8 million passengers, 11.5% more year-on-year, including 10.9 million passengers for Aeroflot alone, 13.6% more. Passenger turnover was up 13.2% in the 5M. Seat occupancy increased 3 percentage points to 77.4% in May 2016 for the group and was up 2 p.p. to 77.7% for Aeroflot alone.
The Aeroflot group includes Aeroflot Russian Airlines (operating in the premium segment), Rossiya Airlines (medium) and Pobeda Airlines (low-cost), as well as Aurora Airlines in the Far East.